


Aurora

by 13atoms (2Atoms)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 13 gets it, Broken Up, F/M, Kid!Fic, the fam is oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:01:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27643136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2Atoms/pseuds/13atoms
Summary: Request: dh!master x reader fic where reader and him are separated and she's been back at earth life for a couple of years and has his child which he doesnt know about?? and then one day he visits and finds out...
Relationships: Previous!Dh!Master / Reader, The Master (Dhawan)/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	Aurora

You’d heard the groan of a materializing TARDIS before, even a few times in the years since you left The Master. You’d heard it in dreams, in nightmares, even once in your waking hours: the single time The Doctor and the Fam came to visit you, a year or so after your return to earth.

The Doctor’s expression when she saw a baby in your arms was one you would never forget. A million pieces falling into place behind her eyes, a failed attempt to hide horror at the realisation of her parentage.

The Fam seemed largely oblivious, cooing over the baby, passing him around as The Doctor just… stared at you.

“How old?” She finally asked.

She was eyeing your

“Six months.”

“Does he know?”

She dropped her voice, glancing at the others to check they wouldn’t overhear.

“Obviously not.”

She hummed a little sadly, holding out her hand to you, and you took it eagerly.

“If you want I can find him, make him pay you for everything the baby needs.”

“Child support?” You laughed, quiet enough to make sure no one else could hear.

“Just… food. School. Clothes. He can more than provide, whatever nefarious way he gets money these days. You shouldn’t have to do this alone.”

“I’ll be fine.”

You shut her down quickly. You’d long since given up on the notion The Master might be a presence in your daughter’s life. The Doctor coughed awkwardly, watching as Ryan cooed at the baby, and you and Graham quickly corrected his hold on her.

“What’s her name?” She asked finally, having missed it earlier.

You’d hidden it from her earlier. You thought he’d laugh.

“Aurora.”

You tilted your head in embarrassment as The Doctor sighed

“He would love to see her. He’s actually quite good with kids. Or at least, he was.”

You almost rolled your eyes at her, but truthfully you were just glad to have someone to talk to honestly about it.

“No. He’s not… we’re not like that anymore. Please don’t say anything to him.”

The Doctor nodded quickly, miming zipping her lips, making you smile.

“If you ever need anything, I swear I’ll be here so fast, I’ll land perfectly…”

You sighed.

“Can we talk?”

She nodded keenly, and you quickly directed her to fetch a pram to go out.

“We’re just gonna go for a walk,” you’d told the others, waving The Doctor away as she uselessly tried to help with the pram. She’d probably reassemble it to be sentient, if you left her with it for too long. You took your daughter from Ryan’s arms, smiling as they said high-pitched ‘ _bye-bye_ -s’ to her, apologising for leaving them alone at your place.

But you really had to talk to The Doctor properly, without interruption.

“Makes yourselves at home. Sorry about the mess.”

They’d waved you off, a knowing look in Graham’s eye, as you left to be alone with The Doctor.

She stayed quiet as you walked side-by-side to the nearest park, the crunching of pavement between the pram’s wheels

“I didn’t know you two were… like that.”

She broached the subject awkwardly as you entered the park, the baby thankfully content to just lay in her seat as you pushed the pram.

“I wouldn’t have left you otherwise,” you told her honestly.

You’d had plenty of time to reflect on your choices, and you didn’t regret any of them.

“You can still come, if you want. I’d probably get a babysitter though. TARDIS isn’t very babyproof.”

You smiled at her in silent, indulging for a second in the life you could live with her. But it wasn’t feasible. And you wouldn’t leave your daughter.

As you went to say ‘no’, her hand found your arm.

“I know,” she sighed. “You can’t. But the offer’s there.”

As you walked you enjoyed the company. You had truthfully missed the Timelord, the bounce in her step and the stares her outfit drew, the way she looked at ever passing dog and bird with the same curiosity as the most exotic alien planet. But something was bothering her.

The Doctor couldn’t stop curiously glancing at your daughter, and eventually you sighed to her:

“Go on then.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. The Doctor’s sonic was already in hand, scanning your baby and eagerly watching the results as they were read out.

“Half-Timelord,” she gasped.

“Did you not believe me?”

“Well… its just… we’re not usually compatible.” She stammered, still staring at the sonic in her hand, taking a second scan as the baby watched with wide eyes from the pram. “I mean our species aren’t usually compatible. With each other.”

You shrugged.

“There’s some precedent, but he… he probably wouldn’t have known this was a possibility.”

“Might have been a bit more careful if he had,” you laughed, delighting as The Doctor’s cheeks turned pink.

“Maybe,” she conceded. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell him? I think he’d be pretty good about it.”

“We broke up.”

“He’ll look past that! I hate to admit it, but you two always looked so happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in love before you.”

“Doc, it wasn’t… good. It was messy.”

She pouted in a way you supposed was meant to be sympathetic, and ended up making Aurora babble in amusement.

“I broke up with him,” you confessed, wincing at The Doctor’s sudden laugh.

“Really?”

“Please, don’t,” you cut her amusement off. “He was getting more and more off the rails. Hurting people for even brushing past me public, or…”

The Doctor sighed, clearly no stranger to the more erratic part of her old friend’s behaviour.

“I said I liked a stranger’s necklace, and he walked up to her, and took it at gunpoint.”

“So you left?” She prompted.

You nodded, mouth closed against the threat of tears which really ought to have stopped, so long after he’d dropped you back on earth.

“That must have been hard,” she said, aiming for comforting, and ending up somewhere near patronising.

You turned around, heading back the way the two of you had come, heading back past the happy families and giggling children sat on the grass beside the path.

“Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” you admitted. “But for the best.”

The Doctor’s curious silence continued the whole walk back, and you wondered what on earth was happening inside her head.

*

Your heart had soared with fondness as you wrestled the pram back through to door to find a cooked meal, a clean house, and a proud looking Yaz, Ryan and Graham waiting for you.

“Thank you so much,” you’d told each of them, hugging them fondly before they left again. “Come and visit, yeah?”

“Of course.”

*

You hadn’t heard the materialisation of a TARDIS since that day.

Aurora was now eighteen months old, and you hadn’t seen The Master in two years. The fam’s promise to come when you needed had never been tested particularly strongly, and it was a quiet Saturday when your relaxing on the sofa was interrupted by the appearance of a new door in your living room wall.

You were glad Aurora was napping in the next room, as The Master stepped out onto the carpet.

He looked as you remembered, his beard a little shorter and his suit a slightly different shade of purple to the one he used to favour. Time had certainly passed for him too, if the relief on his face at seeing you was anything to go by.

“The Doctor told me to find you.”

“Hello to you too.”

His responding smile was enough to send you back along that dangerous path you’d trodden before, resonating somewhere deep inside you, as he stepped towards you and hugged you.

You sighed against his body, arms wrapped tightly around him, hoping he hadn’t noticed the baby gates and scattered toys around him. Perhaps you could lie…

“She said you wanted to speak to me,” he shrugged, seeming a little shy.

“Did she, now?”

He stepped back from you, holding you at arms’ length. For a moment you could almost believe nothing had changed, since wrapped in his arms was your favourite place to be.

“She did. Though I suspect it was a part of her plan to escape, I was pointing a freeze-ray at her, at the time.”

You hummed, cursing The Doctor for using your name to her own advantage. You assumed she’d escaped. He was never quite enough of a match for her.

“The Doctor saw you,” he declared suddenly. “She said she visited. And that you had a surprise for me.”

You walked to the kitchen, deciding to put on the kettle. Anything to distract yourself from the lie you were trying to tell.

“She visited me a full year ago.”

“Well, this is the time she told me to visit.”

“You’re as bad at driving as each other,” you grumbled.

He gave a light laugh, surprisingly _not-irritated,_ as you took mugs from the cupboard. The kettle started to boil, and you guided The Master to sit at your little kitchen table.

Just as he was pulling out a chair, he paused. There was a crashing from the next room. You moved to check on Aurora out of instinct, crossing the kitchen before you realised what you were doing. The Master’s eyes tracked your movements quickly, and you stopped yourself from showing him any worry. _No_.

He didn’t need to know. She’d go back to sleep in a second.

Everything was fine.

You took a deep breath, returning to the tea.

“What was that?” He asked lightly.

“Nothing.”

The noise continued, and you were certain it was the rattling of the soft bars of her cot. She’d taken to doing that recently, getting scarily close to walking. She’d need a bed soon.

You knew it was a fool’s errand to hide her from him, he had no doubt noticed the significant changes to your space to accommodate a child. He looked around him pointedly, before fixing his stare on you. You sighed.

“Go check on _it._ ”

“No.”

You placed a mug down in front of him, knowing he likely wouldn’t drink it. He was fussy about tea.

He didn’t sit as you took a place at the table, pointedly ignoring your glare.

“If you don’t want tea, you can leave,” you told him firmly, really hoping he might get the hint.

Aurora was definitely awake, and getting irate.

Finally she started to cry.

“Stay here,” you told him firmly, intending to go and settle her, before closing the door firmly between him and his – your – daughter.

The resemblance between them was strong, so strong it broke your heart to look at her, at times. As she grew up you knew you wouldn’t have the strength to say no to those big brown eyes, and you sometimes had to look away when she stared at you for too long, regarding you with all the adoration in the universe.

Just like he used to.

You turned on a side light as you entered the room, slightly impressed to see her almost all the way escaped from the cot. Her progress was impressive, you’d been told, and in the absence of walking she’d taken to climbing around like a spider monkey.

And occasionally building things far beyond the capacity of any normal human child.

It had scared the hell out of you the first time she’d done it, already building little sculptures and Rube-Goldberg machines out of anything she could find. A reminder that she wasn’t quite human.

_School would be a nightmare_ , your friends had joked, seeing how she already liked to doodle letters from books.

You’d wondered if she’d be like The Master, once she started speaking: unable to stop.

“Back to bed, darling,” you muttered, picking her up for a second and letting her cling to you. “Just for a bit. Please.”

The light dimmed and brightened for a second as someone passed between you and the lamp.

You sighed.

“Moved on already?” He asked, a hint of jealous to his voice which made your blood run cold.

“I wish.”

You never could resist a cheap joke. You felt The Master moving around you, almost prowling as he inspected the squirming child clinging to you. Suddenly the main room lights flicked on, and Aurora buried her face in your shoulder as a protest. You blinked too, as The Master stared at the child in full light.

When her face re-emerged from the safety of your shirt, you knew the gig was up.

“She’s mine,” he realised slowly, one hand reaching out.

You pulled her away, walking back to the sofa, and away from his dropped jaw.

“She’s _mine_ ,” you told him firmly.

He followed you immediately, crying to get closer to the infant you were carrying.

“But she’s mine too, isn’t she? My daughter?”

You nodded slowly. There was no point lying. Aurora started to fidget away from you, and you eased your grip on her little body, letting her sit on your knees. She immediately stared at the stranger in front of her, and you felt your heart ache as The Master sat carefully at the other end of the couch.

He hadn’t taken his eyes off her.

“I promised I’d leave you alone,” he told you softly, “but I don’t know if I can… knowing you’ve got my daughter.”

She wriggled a little, and he was transfixed, watching as her little hand gripped around your outstretched fingers for balance.

“I meant what I said, at the time, when I left…” You began carefully, seeing the hope light up on The Master’s face, and you desperately wanted to avoid crushing it.

You’d always resented him a little, for being a man of his word. You’d wanted him to chase.

“Do you get it now, though?” He asked, a little flash of the passion you’d missed so much behind his eyes. “I know I was overprotective, and I’m sorry, but having someone rely on you like that… someone you care so much about…”

Regretfully, you nodded.

You had no idea what lengths you could go to for your daughter, but you didn’t doubt they were extreme. The Master would probably go even further.

“I wish I could go back,” he told you suddenly. “How old is she?”

When you told him, he deflated like you’d physically wounded him.

“I’ve crossed the time stream already,” he sighed. “The Doctor probably did it on _purpose_ , told me to visit too late.”

“I don’t think she’d do that…”

Aurora was reaching for him, she did that a lot with strangers she took a random liking too, and The Master’s entire face lit up.

He reached for her in return, and you begrudgingly passed her over. Instead of setting her on his knee, he hugged her to his chest.

“Hey, you,” he told her softly. “I’m your Dada.”

It made you frown, to see him so affectionate with a child. He giggled as Aurora tried to make a ‘ _da’_ sound, her babbling was still a fair way off proper words, and you could suddenly picture a version of events where you’d stayed. Where you’d told him everything.

“What’s your name?” he asked her gently, and you replied.

“Aurora,” he repeated. Immediately it was followed by a word in Gallifreyan, which you assumed to be the translation. It sounded beautiful, and his eyes watered as he looked up at you. “I like it.”


End file.
